Posted on 10/19/2006 6:53:53 AM PDT by calcowgirl
SANTA ANA--State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Southern California Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said Wednesday.
The investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, according to the Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register.
Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, declined to identify the campaign, citing the ongoing investigation.
"We believe it's linked to a particular Republican campaign," Barankin said in a telephone interview from Sacramento. "We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained."
The letters sparked numerous complaints and prompted state and federal investigations this week. Barankin said investigators have been questioning "lots of people" in Orange County the last several days.
Both newspapers in stories published late Wednesday on their Web sites connected the investigation to Nguyen and said state investigators had found the location where the letters were printed and mailed to an estimated 14,000 Democratic voters in central Orange County. The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source, said authorities had interviewed Nguyen at his office.
Nguyen did not return messages left by The Associated Press or either newspaper. Sanchez also did not return messages seeking comment.
The owner of the company that sent the letters, Huntington Beach-based Mailing Pros, told The Orange County Register that he was interviewed by investigators and gave them the name of the person who hired him. He declined to provide the newspaper with the name.
The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
West said he did not know any laws were being broken when the mailer was sent.
"I'm the one that processed it, and I don't read Spanish," West said. "Until the investigator read it to me, I didn't know the content."
A group of six Vietnamese-American political candidates running for offices in Orange County issued a joint statement denouncing the mailer.
"The content of this mailer is offensive to the immigrant voters, regardless of their ethnicity," the group said.
Lan Quoc Nguyen, who is running for re-election to a local school board, said Tan D. Nguyen's name was not included in the statement because the group was unable to reach him Wednesday. Lan Quoc Nguyen, who is not related to the congressional candidate, said he did not have any information on the investigation.
Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, said he didn't know whether any members had been questioned.
"I condemn the letter. It's an obnoxious, grotesque piece of work," Baugh said. "Regardless of who did it Republican or Democrat if it's a crime, then whoever did it should be prosecuted."
The leader of an anti-illegal immigration group said she was interviewed by investigators from the attorney general's office Wednesday.
Barbara Coe, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, said she told investigators her group had not authorized the letter and she didn't know who sent it.
The note's letterhead resembles that of the group's, and contains the signature Sergio Ramirez.
"The letterhead was altered and I've never head of any Sergio Ramirez," said Coe during a phone interview.
Coe said she has received a handful of death threats since last week, when the letter began arriving at an unknown number of Orange County homes. Her group was investigated by the FBI in the late 1990s because members held signs near polls stating only citizens can vote.
Written in Spanish, the letter also says the government has developed a computer system to track down the names of registered voters.
The letter is correct in that only immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote, but many of its other contentions are false. It also contains several grammatical errors and reads like a literal translation from English to Spanish, suggesting it was not written by a native Spanish speaker.
Numerous political leaders including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have denounced it and called for the investigations.
Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be tracked back to some democrats?
Let's see... Headline and first sentence say "have linked to Republicans". Fourth paragraph "We BELIEVE". So do you have proof or is this just an 'accidentally' misleading headline?
I've read it a couple of times and I'm still not finding the link.
Second, when will just one of these newspapers publish the whole letter? Based on my translation of the partial letter published by La Opinion, the first line reads: "This letter is being sent because you recently registered to vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, you are requested to participate in the democratic process of voting." Hardly hateful or intimidating.
Lastly, I find it amazing that people are calling the letters "racist" and calling for prosecution as a hate crime, but there is no outrage about the death threats received by the leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform whose letterhead was forged in this stupid scheme.
I think it probably will be tracked back to a "Republican" (who was a democrat 2 years ago).
There is more detail in the LA Times and OC Register versions of the story but they were too hard to excerpt.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-letter19oct19,0,6413307.story?coll=la-story-footer
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/state/article_1324403.php
A federal DA was on Fox & Friends this morning about this letter. He claimed that immigrants can register to vote and, in fact, can vote. The problem is that only U.S. citizens can vote. Legal immigrants cannot vote unless they've become citizens. No one is bothering to make that point and it is very important.
The letter mixed facts with some false statements, allegedly in an effort to intimidate voters. i'm not sure exactly which laws were broken. Had they not included falsehoods, I don't think there would have been a problem.
What's so intimidating about a cold, hard fact?
That's what I'm trying to figure out. If they are legal and citizens they are perfectly within their right to vote.
However, Sanchez (D) has already alluded to the fact that illegals should get out and vote. I don't blame the guy at all.
Se le envía esta carta debido a que recientemente fue registrado para votar. Si ud. es ciudadano de los Estados Unidos, se le ruega a que participe en el proceso democrático de la votación.
My translation:
This letter is being sent because you recently registered to vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, you are requested to participate in the democratic process of voting.
What's so intimidating about a cold, hard fact?
Well, the bold part is not true. Millions of immigrants are citizens and eligible to vote.
Threatening but accurate??? (except for the tracking part, which they should do).
Exactly what crime has been committed here?
The articles don't mention what mis-statements were made in the letter, nor does it mention what laws were broken. Surely it cannot be illegal to tell people that it is illegal for non-citizens to vote. My guess is that the only thing illegal about the letter is the letterhead.
"You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
What's so intimidating about a cold, hard fact?
____________________________________
"If you residence in this country is illegal OR YOU ARE AN IMMIGRANT."
As someone who came to this country and became a citizen, i could see where it could be read that anyone not born American, (i.e., an immigrant), and now a citizen, could see this as being told they couldn't vote.
If a private citizen paid for the letter and it contained no mention of a political race or ballot initiative, I don't think any laws were broken. If a campaign paid for it, though, there are a lot of laws about disclosure notices that have to be put on the piece ("Paid for by Friends of Furd Burfle") -- and McCain's friggin CFR law might have made those disclosures even tougher, I don't know.
Good catch ya'll. I missed that one. Of course legal immigrants are allowed to vote.
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